RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Ok, I'm going to take a few minutes to finish up the ailerons and the hinges. We need to go ahead and fit the aileron on the wing at this point. If it doesn't fit correctly you'll want to stop and make any corrections now before we move to the next step, which will be to cut the ailerons off on the outside end to match the wing tips. Go ahead and put all the hinges in the trailing edge of the wing (picture #1). Now slowly fit the aileron onto the hinges (picture #2). It helps to put it on at an “angle”, which will make is easier because you only need to line up one hinge with a slot at a time. Once you have all the hinges into all the slots on the ailerons push the aileron all the way down against the trailing edge of the wing. You want as tight of a fit as you can get, you want the gap as small as you can get while still being able to move the ailerons back and forth (picture #3 & #4). Take a little time and make sure everything fits and that the ailerons move freely back and forth. Picture #5 shows the left aileron installed and picture #6 shows the right aileron installed. Right now we are only test fitting the ailerons, <b>DO NOT</b> glue them at this time. We are still a long way away from gluing the control surfaces on. So fit the ailerons for now, and leave them like this.

Pictures
1.Installing the CA hinges in the trailing edge of the wing.
2.Fitting the aileron onto the hinges in the wing.
3. The gap between the trailing edge and the aileron needs to be as small as possible
4. Tight fit between the aileron and the trailing edge
5. Installed left aileron
6. Installed right aileron


Until next time

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

After the ailerons are positioned and we are happy with the fit we need to cut the aileron so that it matches the wing tips. Because of angle involved this step can look a little intimidating at first, but if you take your time and plan your cuts it's really a fairly easy task.

The instructions call for using masking tape to hold the ailerons in place at the torque rods on the inside of the wing, but I just don't think that that masking tape will really hold the aileron in place. So I used two craft sticks (a.k.a. Popsickle sticks) and two clamps to hold the aileron at this position (picture #1). The instructions also call to pin some scrap balsa to the frame on the outside end of the ailerons, but I chose to use clamps here too (picture #2). I just felt that using the clamps held the ailerons better than with what they called for in the intructions.

Once we have the aileron secured in place we need to determine where we need to cut the ailerons. Do this by placing a straight edge along the bottom edge of the wing and draw a line across the aileron along the straight edge (picture #3, #4, and #5). We'll use a razor saw to cut the aileron off. When I am making cuts like this I prefer to make the cut so that it leaves a little excess, and then sand the part so that it fits. Trust me, it's a lot easier to sand off extra than it is to try and add wood because you cut too much off! Pictures #6 and #7 show using a razor saw to cut off the aileron. Because of the thickness of the aileron you may have to make the cut from several different angles to be able to cut all the way through. Take you time as you make this cut so you don't get off track and cut off too much. Once you have the cut finished take a sanding block and sand the aileron to match the angle of the wing tip (picture #8, #9, and #10). You'll also need to turn over the wing and match sand the aileron to match the “curve” of the outside of the wingtip (picture #11 and #12). Don't try to get this completely smooth and don't sand off too much here, we are only rough sanding it so that it is “close”.

Pictures
1. Clamping the aileron into it's neutral position so we can cut the aileron tip.
2. Using craft sticks and clamps to secure the aileron.
3. Marking the line to cut the aileron tips
4. Marked line to cut.
5. Marked line to cut.
6. Cutting the aileron tips to match the angle of the wing tip.
7. Because of the thickness of the aileron you may have to cut from several directions to cut through it.
8. Sanding the aileron tips to match the wing tip.
9. Tips sanded to match
10. Sanded aileron tip
11. Turn the wing over and sand the outside edge to match too.
12. Aileron sanded to match the wing tip edge.

Until next time

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

For this next step I was very disappointed with the instructions. Why? Well, I made another mistake on the next step. Was it the instructions fault that I made a mistake? Well technically the instructions are correct in the way they are worded, but because of the picture in the instructions it's very confusing and easy to make a mistake. I'm talking about the step were we cut the bottom sheeting so we can install the mounting plate for the aileron servo. If you look at picture #1 you an see the step I am talking about (the second one from the bottom). The text is a little hard to read but it does read to make your measurements for this cut from the main spar, but because the way the picture is situated with the measurements coming from “below” it's easy to get confused and make your measurements from the rear spar. I think that this was a poor choice and placement of pictures on Sig's part when they wrote the manual, but I did make the mistake because the text does say to measure from the main spar. If you remember when we put the wing halves together there was a cut out in both of the W1 ribs for the aileron servo and when you cut the sheeting out your cuts should match up with the cutouts in the ribs. I discovered my mistake when I was cutting across the sheeting and I hit the ribs where there should have been the cutout. I stopped as soon as I hit them to figure out what was wrong. It didn't take too long to figure out the mistake, and correcting it was almost as simple. Since the blade I was using to cut is very thin the actual gap wasn't that much, so I mixed up a little bit of 5 minute epoxy and worked it into where I had cut. If you look at picture # 6 you can see where I cut incorrectly and then used epoxy to fix it. See, I do make mistakes too!! [X(] [X(]

Anyway, back to the build. Once you have CORRECTLY marked the cutout that is needed you'll need to cut make the cuts. I have a very thin razor saw blade that fits in a hobby knife (picture #2) that I like to use because I have such good control over my cut with it (picture #3). If you don't have a blade like this you can use a regular #11 blade with the hobby knife, or you can use a regular razor saw too. Just got slowly (yep, there is that term again. But it's true just about all the way through the build, going slowly helps to make a better build). Now we need to get the ASM plate as this will be glued into place over the cutout we just made in the sheeting. I test fit the plate and I just wasn't all that happy about how it sat on the sheeting. The instructions called to “Use enough glue to fill in the gap under each side of ASM, caused by the dihedral angle”, but I just didn't like that. IMHO using glue to fill a gap is just poor building practice. So I cut a little bit of scrap balsa strip to fill in that gap. If you look at picture #4 you can see the strips in place on each side of the ASM. Make sure you sand it so that the middle of the ASM contacts the wing sheeting at the center point of the wing. When you are happy with the fit of the ASM we'll need to glue it into place. The instructions called for using slow CA, but this is another place where I felt that epoxy would be better. I very rarely use 5 minute epoxy, but this is a good place to use it. Picture #4 shows the part with epoxy on it ready to be place. Put the ASM in place (picture #5) and then put some weight on it to hold it down while the epoxy sets (picture #6). Once the epoxy sets you can remove the weight (picture #8).

Pictures #8 and #9 show the added balsa strips used to fill in the gap between the ASM and the wing sheeting.

Pictures
1. Referencing the “mistaken” manual. They could have been clearer.
2. Small razor saw blade for hobby knife.
3. Cutting out for the aileron servo
4. Preparing the ASM for installation.
5. The ASM in place. Notice the “mistake cut” below the ASM.
6. Weighing down the ASM while the epoxy sets.
7. The installed ASM.
8. Notice the added strips that fill in the gap between the ASM and the wing sheeting.
9. End view of the ASM. Notice the added strips.

Until next time

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

I want to take a moment to share a thought with everybody. After working on this thread for a while now I have a new found respect for anybody that makes a living doing technical writing such as the writers for the magazines in our hobby. This writing stuff is hard!! [X(] [X(] While I've never had a problem with writing tasks that I've done before, those were limited to business proposals as probably the most difficult chore I had in this area. Doing the writing for this thread is really a lot more than I had planned on. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining because I'm really enjoying doing this, I just wanted to make the comment how hard it was.

Anyway, we're almost finished up with the wing now. The next step is to install the trailing edge stiffeners. These are simply small pieces of ply that will keep the rubber bands used to hold the wings on from cutting into the soft balsa wood of the wing. Installation of these parts are very simple and pretty easy. As with everything else you want to test fit the parts (picture #1) and make any adjustments to the fit. I sanded the edge where they meet in the middle a little bit to get a little better fit. Once I was happy with the fit I glued them in place and used clamps to hold them while the glue dries (pictures #2 and #3). Once the glue dries you can remove the clamps (picture #4).

Pictures
1. Test fitting the stiffening plates
2. Applying glue to the plates.
3. Parts clamped in place while glue dries.
4.Completed installation.
5.

Until next time

Ken

bubbagates

My Feedback: (32)

AMEN, and AMEN again.

I do technical writing and testing for a computer security company, I've gotten pretty good at it but early on in my writing career I had to try taking a tcpdump output and explain it to someone that has a hard time trying to figure out where the power button to his new laptop is and is in charge of the IT department.

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Woohoo!!! We're finally at the last step of building the wing. The last step uses a piece of fiberglass tape to strengthen the joint between the two wing halves. Once again I will do something a little different that the instructions. The instructions call for using thin CA to secure the glass tape into position. There are two main reasons why I don't want to do this. The first reason is how hard CA becomes. It is just like a rock once it dries and is very hard to sand when we are finishing the plane. The second reason is the fumes. When you lay down this much CA you had better make sure yo have very very good ventilation because this is going to put out some awful fumes. You definitely don't want to be breathing in the fumes here, as they can cause some pretty serious breathing issues.

Before we can apply the glass tape to the wing joint we will need to do a little prep work. I'm talking about doing a little bit of sanding. I normally wait and do all the sanding at one time (I do this because I really don't like to sand, so I save it up and do it all at once!!). But because of the glass tape we will need to do a bit of sanding before we put the tape down. This is because once the tape is down it will be hard to dress up or sand out any imperfections under the tape. If you look at picture #1 you can see that the area of the top wing is a bit rough, and this is what we want to sand smooth before we put the glass tape down. I used a sanding block with 80 grit paper on it to rough sand this area down. We don't need to get this area completely smooth like we will do prior to covering the plane, we just need to get it all the joints and wood even so the tape will go on smoothly. Also, we only need to do this on the top of the wing. The reason for this is because the bottom of the wing will be hidden inside of the fuselage so the appearance isn't as critical as the top of the wing will be.

I probably should have talked about this in the beginning of this build thread, but here's a note about safety with epoxy. You really want to avoid getting the epoxy on your hands while you are working. In some places that you use epoxy you won't really need to get your hands near the epoxy, but since we will be working on putting the fiberglass tape in position there's a pretty good chance that we'll get some on our hands. That's why I wear the gloves you see in picture #4. I got these gloves at Hobby Lobby (the craft store, not the hobby shop), but you can find similar gloves at Lowe's or even Wal-mart. Picture #5 shows another great little tool that I like to use. Yes, that is the door key from a motel. They make great squeegees for spreading and removing excess epoxy. I'm always on the lookout for these things. A great source for them are all the credit card offers that come in the the mail that come with a “sample” card. I have no use for the credit cards, but I save the cards to use when I build.

I used 30 minute epoxy to put down this tape. I chose 30 minute so I would have enough time to get the all worked before the epoxy set. I marked roughly the area where the tape will sit, and then I used an epoxy brush (picture #6) to apply a thin layer of epoxy on the wing (I started at the edge of the aileron servo and work around the wing and ended back at the aileron servo cutout). Lay the tape into the epoxy you just put down (picture #7), use the epoxy brush to get the tape “settled” into the epoxy. Also use the brush to apply more epoxy to the top of the tape, you want to get enough epoxy to fill the weave of the tape. Keep working in this manner all the way around the wing (picture #8). Once you have the tape in place use the card to squeegee the tape (picture #9 and #10). This will get the excess epoxy off of the tape, and will also help get the epoxy worked into the weave of the tape. Do this all the way around the wing. If you do a good job of using the squeegee the glass should be very thin with just enough epoxy in it to fill the weave, and will make sure there are no “bumps” of epoxy that would need sanded off later. Pictures #11 and #12 show the finished product. If you look carefully you can see how thin the epoxy is after using the squeegee to get the excess epoxy out of the weave.

Whew!!!! Finally, the wing is done now and all the posts are written up on it. Great! Tonight we'll start on the fuselage and keep working on this project.

Pictures
1. Rough wing needs sanded prior to applying the fiberglass tape.
2. Joints between wood panels will need to be sanded smooth.
3. Preparing to apply the glass tape.
4. A pair of rubber gloves will protect your hands from getting epoxy on them.
5. Hotel door keys make great tools for applying epoxy.
6. Use an epoxy brush to lay down a thin layer of epoxy.
7. Lay the glass tape down in the epoxy layer.
8. Working around the wing with the epoxy tape.
9. Using the door key to squeegee out excess epoxy.
10. Using the door key to squeegee out excess epoxy.
11. Finished glass tape on wing joint.
12. Finished glass tape on wing joint.



Until next time

Ken

shd3920

Quote:

If you remember when we put the wing halves together there was a cut out in both of the W1 ribs for the aileron servo and when you cut the sheeting out your cuts should match up with the cutouts in the ribs. I discovered my mistake when I was cutting across the sheeting and I hit the ribs where there should have been the cutout.

This is where I went ahead of the plans in my LT-40 build thread and cut out the sheeting before gluing the two wing panels together. (PHOTO 1) That way I was able to see exactly where I was cutting and be sure I was lining up this cut with the cutouts in the W1 ribs.

Quote:

I test fit the plate and I just wasn't all that happy about how it sat on the sheeting. The instructions called to “Use enough glue to fill in the gap under each side of ASM, caused by the dihedral angle”, but I just didn't like that. IMHO using glue to fill a gap is just poor building practice. So I cut a little bit of scrap balsa strip to fill in that gap. If you look at picture #4 you can see the strips in place on each side of the ASM.

This is where I modified the servo mount in my build thread and added scrap wood to make it fit [where bruce said I was over-engineering the model]. (PHOTO 2) I figured Ken that you would have to add scrap wood to at least the sides to make it fit better, although I may have added more than you (I added a piece to the front and back as well as extra ply to screw into) you more or less did the same that I did.

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Ok, like I did before, I want to post out all the pictures I have left over. These pictures are what I took and didn't use in any of the build posts. They are in no particular order, and if you have any questions please feel free to PM me. They are going to take me several posts to get them all out.

I am doing this because I have a folder that I store my pictures in as I progress, and I want to clear that folder before I move on to the fuselage. And just because a picture didn't get posted in the build posts doesn't mean that it's not useful, so I'm putting them out here for others to use as reference.

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

More pictures

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

More pictures

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

More pictures

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

More pictures

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

More pictures

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Last of the pictures. I've got the picture folder empty now, so time to get started on the next part of the build.

Next stop, the fuselage.

Ken

elenasgrumpy

My Feedback: (4)

Woo-Hoo, On to the fuse. Just wanted to say that you did a clean job of trimming the ailerons ton match the wing tips, looks great to me. This a gonna one fine Trainer when you're done. Keep up the great work.


Mark

LeeHop

Thanks for the pictures, Ken -

Is everybody getting the "Click for fullsize" message instead of the thumbnails or is it just me?

LeeHop

elenasgrumpy

My Feedback: (4)

I get a thumbnail pic with a click for full size option.


Mark

maineac58

This may be a bit off topic but I seem to be having a brain cramp. How can I save these threads
so that I may view them later?

RC-Captain

The thread will always be on RCU unless their server crashes. The pics you can save on your computer by right clicking and the left clicking on save picture as.

carrellh

At the top of each thread is a link to "Subscribe" to the thread. Then you can look at your subscribed threads to make it easy to find. If you do this there are subscription setting related to emails you might want to adjust. One setting sends an email every time a thread gets a reply, which could flood your inbox.

shd3920

While you are inside the thread you can 1)right click the mouse button 2)scroll down the menu to "create shortcut" 3)when "create shortcut" is highlighted click the mouse button

A shortcut will be linked onto your desktop so you can view any time at your leisure.

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Well, at least I had good intentions. After last weekend I had told myself that I needed to keep up with this build and thread. Well, at least I kept half of that promise. I was able to keep working on the build, but unfortunately I got behind thread once again. I do apologize once again to all of those that are following this thread. Time to make up for some lost time. In my last post I finished the wing and was ready to get started on the fuselage of the plane next.

Even though we inventoried everything at the beginning build, it doesn't hurt to pull everything out and make sure you know every part (picture #1). If you didn't do it when we inventoried it's a good idea to stop and mark all the fuselage formers so that you know which way is the front of the former as well as the top of each piece (picture #2). Trust me, it's really easy to put one of these in upside down or backwards, and once the glue sets it's too late to pull it out and turn it around. Trust me, this is the voice of experience speaking. I've done exactly that in a past build and it's easier to take a few minutes to mark the parts now instead of spending hours trying to fix it later after the glue has set. Picture #3 shows the edges of the parts and they are rough from being cut. Use a sanding block to lightly sand the edges of each piece so it's smooth (picture #4 and #5). But make sure you only use light pressure as you sand, you just want to take to edge off the part not change the shape of the part.

Ok, we're going to do a little bit extra on this build. One thing that I just don't like to do is run the antenna wire on the outside of the fuselage. I just think that it's so much cleaner of a look to run it inside of the fuselage. When you get an ARF it can be a real pain to route the antenna inside the fuselage, unless they have already provided you with a tube to do that. But since we are building the plane here it's really easy to add it in. Trust me, it's a lot easier to prepare the formers for this now than it is once the formers are in the plane. I'm going to use some scrap tubing I have laying around as an antenna tube. What I am going to use it actually some old pushrod material that I had in my scrap box, but it will work just fine here. All you really need is a tube big enough for you antenna wire to run through, you can see the tubing in picture #8. The first thing that you need to do in running your antenna inside of you fuselage is decide exactly where you want it to run inside. For this plane I plan on running it along the bottom of the fuselage, and will have it exit and be anchored at the rear of fuselage on the bottom. Since I now know where I plan on running my tube, it's pretty easy from here on out. In picture #6 you can where I have marked each former (F3, F4, F5, & F6) where I plan on drilling the hole for my antenna tube. Picture #9 and #10 show both the formers after they have been drilled and how the tube will look once it's installed in the former. We're not going to install the tube at this point, in fact I won't actually put it in until the fuselage it glued together. I am only drilling the holes in the formers now because its a heck of a lot easier to drill the holes in the formers BEFORE they are installed in the fuselage, in fact about the only way you can drill the holes after the fuselage it assembled is to have a right angle drill head attachment for a Dremel® rotary tool.

I'm going to wrap this post up for now. Don't worry, I will have more posted today.

Pictures
1.All of the fuselage parts layed out.
2. Make sure the formers are labeled for the top and front of each piece.
3. Parts will have a rough edge as they come out of the parts sheets.
4. Using fine sandpaper and a sanding block to remove the rough edge.
5. Edge sanded clean. Don't sand too much and alter the shape of the part.
6. Formers F3, F4, F5, and F6 layed out and marked to drill for installation of an antenna tube.
7. Formers after antenna tube holes have been drilled
8. Using an old pushrod for an antenna tube
9. Temporarily installed antenna tube.


Until next time

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Next step in the construction is to do a little prep work on the firewall. What needs to be done is pretty simple to do, but don't take that to mean that you can just breeze through it. When we get to marking the firewall for our engine mounts it's very important to make sure that we get it positioned accurately. The plane will still fly, but if the motor is off center it can cause the plane to act differently. So take some time and get the measurements correct. When we get to that point I have a few “tricks” that help to get it correct, and I'll point those out when we get there.

First thing we need to do is install the blind nuts for the Nose Gear Bearing. There are two different sizes of blind nuts in this kit, 4-40 and 6-32, so make sure you get the correct ones for this step. We will use the 4-40 blind nuts here. Turn the firewall (former F1) over on your workbench. Place the blind nut one of the bottom four holes (refer to the plans if you're not sure which are the correct holes), make sure you put the blind nut in with the barbs pointing down. Give the nut a little push to set the barb in the in wood, and then use a hammer to gently tap the blind nut the rest of the way in to the firewall (Pictures #1 and #2). Picture #3 shows all four blind nuts in place. The instructions call for using medium CA to hold the blind nuts in place, but I'm sure you all know by now how I feel about CA, so I'm going to use 5 minute epoxy. Whether you use CA or epoxy you will need to use very special care not to get any glue in the threads of the blind nut. I mixed up a little epoxy and used a craft stick (a.k.a. Popsickle stick) to apply the epoxy to the back of the blind nuts. Smear a little epoxy around the edge of the blind nut and make sure it touches both the blind nut and the wood of the firewall (picture #4). What we are trying to achieve is to have the epoxy hold the blind nut in place. These can loosen up over time and fall out, and that's exactly the opposite of the purpose of a blind nut, so a little epoxy (or CA) will hold the blind nut in place pretty much for the life of the airplane. Once the epoxy is dry you can do a quick trial mount of the nose gear bearing to make sure everything is ok (picture #5).

Next along is to mark the centerline of the firewall. This will be important as to where we will mount the engine, so take a few minutes to get this correct. There are several ways to get the actual center. One would be to measure the width of the firewall and divide that in half. I'm not a huge fan of doing it this way because sometimes the math can be off, or sometimes you get weird fractions that are hard to measure. The second way is to use the same technique that I pointed out when we were cutting the hinges for the ailerons. Use your ruler and pick a round number, say 4 inches for example. Put the “0” mark on your ruler on one edge of the firewall, and tilt the ruler at an angle until the “4” mark is aligned with the other edge of the firewall. Now half of your “round number” will be the center point, so make a mark at “2”. You will need to make another mark at a different location in order to accurately mark the centerline. Picture #6 shows me marking the center point, and picture #7 shows the centerline in place. In picture #6 it looks like I am measuring the width of the firewall and dividing it in half. But let me tell you a little secret, that picture was taken just for show, because I never measure and divide to mark center (too inaccurate for me). I have a third way of doing it that I prefer to use, and I'll let you in on it below.

A tool that I have found is invaluable for these things is called a “Center Point Marking Ruler”. I'm not sure if they will have it in the craft section of Wal-mart, but I do know you can find them at Hobby Lobby (the craft store, not the hobby shop). These are rulers designed specifically for marking the center of something. Pictured in picture #8 is my center point ruler. Using is very very simple. If you will notice it has two scales on it. The scale on top is actual size. This is used to measure the width of what you need to find the center of. The bottom scale is exactly half size of the top scale. So to find the center of anything you first measure with the top scale and note the measurement, and then use the bottom scale to mark off the same measurement. Since it is half size you now have the exact center of your part. For example: In picture #9 you can see that the width is exactly 3-3/16”. So in picture #10 you can see that I am using the bottom scale to mark 3-3/16” on the part. This is the exact center of the firewall. One more mark at the bottom of the firewall, and connecting the two marks gives me the exact centerline of the firewall. I can't recommend this tool enough. If you plan on doing very much building this ruler will pay for itself many times over. One other quick note, if you buy one that is metal you can also use it as a good metal straightedge to use for cutting with.

Well, I don't have enough room to post the pictures of the next step completely so I'll stop here for the moment.

Pictures
1. Using a hammer to tap in the 4-40 blind nuts for the Front Gear Bearing.
2. All four blind nuts in place.
3. Epoxy applied to two of the blind nuts.
4. Using a craft stick to apply the epoxy to the blind nuts.
5. Trial fit of the Front Gear Bearing.
6. Measuring and marking the center of the firewall
7. Centerline marked on the firewall.
8. A Center Point Marking Ruler
9. Taking the first measurement with the top scale of the Center Point Ruler
10. Use the bottom scale to mark the same measurement which will be the center of the firewall.

Until next time

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Now that we have the center of the firewall marked it's time to mark where our motor mounts go. There is no set “exact” place where it will go because it will be different depending on the engine that you will use on this plane. Place your motor on the firewall so that it's centered on the centerline that we drew in the previous step. Take your time and get it as accurate as you can (picture #1). Once you have the engine centered on the firewall use a square to mark where the motor will sit on motor mount once it's installed (picture #2), make this mark on both sides of the motor. Use a ruler to extend this mark up the firewall so that it is drawn past the mount hole that are in the firewall (picture #3). Picture #4 shows the parts that we need.

For the next step in this I want to go back to something that I said at the start of this build. Measure twice, cut once. We may not be cutting, but this is definitely something that was want to make sure is marked and measured correctly. Trust me when I say that I have learned the hard way when I started building planes. Mis-marking where the motor mounts can be a royal pain in the butt. With that in mind we're going to double check our marks. We could use a ruler and try to see if the marks are correct, but I prefer to actually check this with the motor in place. If you look at picture #5 you can see that I have put the motor mounts in place, but instead of installing the blind nuts with the barbs set in the wood I've turned them around backwards (you could also use nuts to do the same thing). What this does is let us put everything in place and check our measurements before we drive the barbs into the wood. Put the motor mounts on the marks that we previously made and snug down the nuts on the back of the firewall (picture #6). Set the motor on the mounts and check for its fit on the mounts (picture #7 and #8). You will want the engine to sit as close to the mounts as possible, but you don't want to spread the mounts apart when you put the motor in place (picture #9). This will cause strain on the mounts when the engine is running and will eventually cause a failure of the mount. When you are happy with the way the engine sits on the mounts it's time to check our measurements. Check to ensure that the mounts do actually sit centered on the firewall. You should have the same distance from the centerline to the motor mounts on both mounts. If the measurements aren't the same, take the time and correct that now. Once you are happy that the mounts are in the proper place it's time to set the blind nuts in place, but before you do make sure you mark the location of the mounts just in case you slip while you are installing the blind nuts. To make sure that the mount position doesn't change while you install the blind nuts we need to install one at a time. Picture #10 shows us removing one blind nut and turning it upside down so that the barbs are set in the wood. Since we don't want to move the mounts we won't be using a hammer to set the blind nut like we did earlier. Instead, after you turn the nut over use a screwdriver to tighten the screw on the front of the firewall. This will pull the blind nut into to the wood. Now continue on to the rest of the blind nuts until you have all four set (picture #11), make sure you keep checking to make sure that the mounts stay in place. After you have all four nuts in place, we'll use 5-minute epoxy to set the nuts in place like we did with the Front Gear Bearing mount earlier.

Pictures
1. Center the engine on the centerline of the firewall.
2. Transfer the location of the engine mounting lugs to the firewall.
3. Extend the mark on the firewall.
4. All the parts needed to mount the engine.
5. Install the blind nuts “backwards” so we can check our measurements.
6. Make sure the mounts are on the marks that we made.
7. Place the motor on the mount and check for it's fit on the motor mounts.
8. Checking the motor fit on the mounts.
9. Make sure that the motor doesn't spread the mount apart.
10. Turn the blind nuts over to install them into the firewall.
11. All four blind nuts installed.
12. Use 5-minute epoxy to set the blind nuts in place.



Until next time

Ken

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Just wanted to give a quick note to the group to let you all know what is going on. I had originally planned on getting caught up with this build thread this weekend, but had a couple of things come up. I went to a swap meet Saturday morning which took the morning. That managed to empty my wallet, which it normally does. I have been looking for something big to build and I lucked out and found something. I picked up a Dynaflite Super Decathlon kit, which has an 89" wing span. I got a great price on the kit too. I think I'll put a Zenoah G-38 on it, unless I get any info from others that have this plane pointing me to something else. I'm also considering doing smoke on it too.

Anyway, I decided that I was going to spend the rest of the weekend with my family so the build got put on hold. I'm sorry, but as much as I love flying/building my family always comes first. We spent today putting our Christmas decorations. We usually take a couple of days to put them up, but we had great weather for it so we got it all done today. I'll tell you this much, I've got muscles hurting that I didn't know I had. [:@] But it was a great weekend for me.

I'll get posting here in the morning, I promise!! With a long weekend coming up (we are closed Friday) I'm hoping to get a lot done on this build.

Ken